Posts Tagged ‘workshop’

Lake Charles Civic Ballet has always offered its company members more. More than just an end of the year recital, the dancers enjoy precious opportunities to perform on the stage for the audience. In addition, LCCB provides dance students with a six-week summer intensive workshop taught by professional instructors from around the country. The workshop provides outstanding training for the serious ballet student. Dancers know how easy it can be to settle into comfortable surroundings—your regular studio, normal classes, that favorite instructor. For a dancer to gain full value from their ballet study they must stay connected. They must feel connected. Summer workshop can help the dancer reconnect. They walk into the studio like it’s new, try a different style of dance, and learn from instructors with different teaching methods. It’s exciting! It’s sort of like a metabolism boost for their dance study—infusing energy and excitement. Summer workshop for ballet students can provide hands on training into the world beyond dance. Lake Charles Civic Ballet dancers experience the big stage. They present full-length story ballets to large audiences, but that’s not all. Company members perform and work behind scenes in ways vital to the success of the performance. Everything imaginable from setup to cleanup becomes part of the dancers’ experience. The training, not always glamorous, develops the dancer. Not all dancers will become the principle ballerina in a professional company, but some may. Others may choose a career path they discovered while training in the company. The audience will eagerly embrace the talented professional ballerina and they will also need someone to design her fabulous costumes, run the complicated sound board, and plan that strategic marketing campaign to connect the audience to the arts.

Every year some of our company dancers attend summer workshops away from home. This summer a few of our members will attend Houston Ballet’s Summer Intensive program. Some of those Level 8 students can participate in career studies courses. Read what Jaclyn Youngblood, Academy Intern, shares about these students’ classwork.

Many children spend their summer vacation lounging on the couch, swimming, watching movies, or playing video games. Other kids use their time away from academic studies to develop their physical and mental skills by participating in various sports camps. Serious ballet dancers are among those kids who will use the summer break to develop and improve their skills. All sports — football, soccer, baseball, cheer, even marching band — require time, energy, and mental effort for a participant to be successful. Ballet is no different. Ballet is a sport with its own unique terms, techniques, positions, rigorous muscle conditioning, and muscle memory development. In addition to physical skills, these serious athletes learn the importance of musical timing, proper nutrition, costuming and uniform requirements, hair and makeup techniques, and so much more. Ballet dancers may attend ‘intensive’ summer camps with little free time. Their day may begin at 8:00 A.M. and last until 6:00 or 7:00 P.M. At these camps or in a studio, dancers learn both how to perform individually and as part of a team. A passion to be the best – be it at ballet or baseball – is often what drives our young athletes to forego other activities and focus on developing their skills. That’s why some dancers will spend their summer vacation in the studio.